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Five months into 2023 and the year has posed more than its fair share of environmentally-fuelled mental health challenges - with the fallout from January's floods in Auckland, Cyclone Gabrielle and the ever-present threat of the next event. On top of the pandemic and spiralling cost of living, recent surveys of how New Zealanders are doing paint a pretty grim picture of their state of mind. One of the most recent was done by Octopus Research for Tend Health, and found nearly half of the 1500 Kiwis surveyed feel somewhere on the spectrum of average to very bad when they first wake up.
Just one in ten said they felt good. One in five of young people were most likely to see their GP to discuss their mental health. As for Tend, it's seen 184 per cent increase in patients seeking help for their mental health. Dr Mataroria Lyndon is Tend's co-founder and Director of Equity, he's also a senior lecturer at the University of Auckland and Board member of Te Aka Whai Ora Māori Health Authority.
